Burdensome

Ghot said:

The most valuable tool on Windows 11 is backup software... "Don't leave home without it".

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I would like to delete Edge, and the widgets along with it's connection to the net. I am not conversant with widgets. That would also be on the list!

glennc said:

I would like to delete Edge, and the widgets along with it's connection to the net. I am not conversant with widgets. That would also be on the list!

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There's a tutorial for... everything.






Rest assured... you too can beat Windows 11 senseless.

Ghot said:

Uninstall and Reinstall Widgets in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall or reinstall widgets for all users in Windows 11. Widgets are small cards that display dynamic content from your favorite apps and services on your Windows desktop. They appear on the widgets board, where you can discover, pin, unpin, arrange...

www.elevenforum.com

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A gracious member of a group of computer savvy helpers. Thanks you!

glennc said:

A gracious member of a group of computer savvy helpers. Thanks you!

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Yes. I have a pic for any situation. (No AI needed)

Have managed to not listen exactly to the information. I did not do the uninstall process outlined by the inimitable Brink in the Admin account but in the user account with admin permissions. It did not work successfully as there were problems with region IIRC. So I went to the admin account to try again. It said that the file? wasn't found and the widgets and news feed are still there. I did the computer logout and restart.
Help?!!

glennc said:

Have managed to not listen exactly to the information. I did not do the uninstall process outlined by the inimitable Brink in the Admin account but in the user account with admin permissions. It did not work successfully as there were problems with region IIRC. So I went to the admin account to try again. It said that the file? wasn't found and the widgets and news feed are still there. I did the computer logout and restart.
Help?!!

Click to expand...

If you're talking about the uninstall Widgets tutorial, you can just do the "reinstall" Widgets... then try again.
Have patience, and follow the directions in the tutorials... exactly. Don't rush. Rushing breaks things.

As mentioned... you need to make a backup... BEFORE you start messing around with Windows 11.


Note: When a tutorial says... Open Terminal as Admin, it means just that...








There are thousands of tutorials. So Brink doesn't waste time putting things in them, that aren't important.
Everyone's comps are different, so we USE backup software, so we can easily fix boo-boos we make.


Tweaking (paring down Windows) is gonna take... weeks. It's not gonna happen overnight.
And... if you aren't using backup software, it's gonna take months or years. ^^

@glennc

Use the Widgets tutorial to reinstall Widgets.
Then.... use REVO to uninstall the Windows App: Windows Web Experience Pack
Use the "scan for leftovers" tool in REVO, every time you uninstall something.

antspants said:

Another way to deal with some of these unwanted apps is to use Revo Uninstaller

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I'm glad I read your post. I received a email a few days ago about needing to renew my 2 year license for the portable version of Revo. I almost forgot about the email. I don't know how long the offer is good for but I got it at a 50% discount.

Winuser said:

I'm glad I read your post. I received a email a few days ago about needing to renew my 2 year license for the portable version of Revo. I almost forgot about the email. I don't know how long the offer is good for but I got it at a 50% discount.

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Good deal!

Ghot said:

Yes. I have a pic for any situation. (No AI needed)

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HI is way better then AI. We need to use HI (human intelligence) more and AI less. IMHO our brain, just like our muscles need to be exercised or it will get weak and eventually become useless.

Ghot said:

If you're talking about the uninstall Widgets tutorial, you can just do the "reinstall" Widgets... then try again.
Have patience, and follow the directions in the tutorials... exactly. Don't rush. Rushing breaks things.

As mentioned... you need to make a backup... BEFORE you start messing around with Windows 11.


Note: When a tutorial says... Open Terminal as Admin, it means just that...


View attachment 87760





There are thousands of tutorials. So Brink doesn't waste time putting things in them, that aren't important.
Everyone's comps are different, so we USE backup software, so we can easily fix boo-boos we make.


Tweaking (paring down Windows) is gonna take... weeks. It's not gonna happen overnight.
And... if you aren't using backup software, it's gonna take months or years. ^^

Click to expand...

Will keep that firmly in mind, glad there is a way to do-over this time !

glennc said:

Will keep that firmly in mind, glad there is a way to do-over this time !

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Look carefully at the REVO picture in post #18.

Then read post #27.


I removed 90% of the junk in Windows 11... just using REVO.

Then for the rest (over time)...


This link is just a collection of Win 11 tutorials, from these forums





But as I and other have mentioned... use 3rd party backup software.
Then if you inadvertently break something... you have an un-broken backup to restore from.



Keep in mind, that there will be things on an HP computer that do not appear after a clean install of Windows.
Things that HP put there. Be doubly cautious when removing any HP things.

I am considering Revo thanks. I was unable to reinstall the WWexperience Pack from the store. Didn't show in the Store as having an option for installing, but did have a download. Saw the newfangled update windows store link in Brink's great tutorial and did update the store successfully. Went looking in Windows Apps and found the entry for the WWEPack , so I went back and followed his Unistall portion. Worked like a champ!!!!!!
Now in my user account, it is still running the WWEP. What to do next?? Unwilling now to just wing it!!!!!
Help2
Thanks for your guidance.

glennc said:

I am considering Revo thanks. I was unable to reinstall the WWexperience Pack from the store. Didn't show in the Store but did have a download. Saw the newfangled update windows store link in Brink's great tutorial and did update the store successfully. Went looking in Windows Apps and found the entry for the WWEPack , so I went back and followed his Unistall portion. Worked like a champ!!!!!!
Now in my user account, it is still running the WWEP. What to do next?? Unwilling now to just wing it!!!!!
Help2
Thanks for your guidance.

Click to expand...

Where, exactly, do you see it "still running"?




To post a screenshot on this forum...
1. Take the screenshot, edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg (max. size = 2MB)
2. Left click in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your pic and click Insert.
4. After clicking Insert, I usually choose the Thumbnail (smaller) option, or the Full Image (larger) option.

Ghot said:

Where, exactly, do you see it "still running"?

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It still has the tray icon and when I click it, it pops appearing fully functional weather, news etc.

glennc said:

It still has the tray icon and when I click it, it pops appearing fully functional weather, news etc.

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Maybe you should read post #27.... again.
That's how I removed it.

If you want to know why it's "still running" after the tutorial... you'll have to ask the person who wrote the tutorial.


Windows 11 is a huge, complex program. There are various ways to do things in or to, Windows 11.
I'm NOT @Brink.

I told you the way I removed it, in post #27.


If you tried something in a tutorial, and it didn't work as expected... you need to post that IN the tutorial.



You also need to post screen shots of things you did. Especially things done in command prompt or powershell.
That way we can "see" if the command was correct, etc.

Lastly, sometimes Microsoft changes something, and a tutorial might no longer work.
In cases like that, the tutorials author, needs to know that.


In other words... you need to help us, help you.



Maybe, run the command again, and this time post a screen shot.
Remember, we can't "see" your screen. So without screen shots, we really don't know what you actually did.




Just the other day, we discovered, that copy/pasting commands in command prompt or powershell, don't always work like expected. In the case I'm referring to... the act of copy/paste, left a single quote, out of the command.
And... that only happened to some people. For others the command behaved as it should.

We still don't know why it worked for some and not for others.

Without screen shots, there's no way to tell if something like that has happened to you.
On a side note, the people this happened to, were regulars. they "knew" what they were doing and it still didn't work as expected.

The only way we managed to discover the problem, was because they posted... screen shots.

Thank you kindly Ghot, understood and your guidance has been indispensable. Have been trying to par down programs and that is why I haven't added Revo back to my system, yet. Will give the tutorials a bit more time before I follow your advice on that program. Sorry I am sure my terminology is outdated as well as inaccurate.

glennc said:

Thank you kindly Ghot, understood and your guidance has been indispensable. Have been trying to par down programs and that is why I haven't added Revo back to my system, yet. Will give the tutorials a bit more time before I follow your advice on that program. Sorry I am sure my terminology is outdated as well as inaccurate.

Click to expand...

It's not YOU... it's the complexity of Windows and the zillions of different computers.

This was the command I was referring to...

[System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match ‘Windows UEFI CA 2023’

For some people... copy/pasting the command left out the two single quotes around...
Windows UEFI CA 2023 ...at the end of the command.
This, ofc, made the command not work.

We're "still" not sure WHY this happened. We have some theories, but we don't "know" for sure.
The problem may be something on "their" computers, or it may be something Microsoft is doing to certain versions of Windows.



What you need to understand is that stuff like this happens a LOT.
We all... work together on things like this.

This is why things like screen shots are so important.
If you're having trouble with screen shots, for example... make a thread about it.
There are no dumb questions.



No one on here... "works" for Microsoft. We're all volunteers, and we help... where we can.
I suggested using REVO because that's how "I" removed Widgets.
I removed Widgets a year and a half before the tutorial existed.




I think you'll discover that making a specific topic about what you're having problems with will get you answers, much faster. General, all encompassing topics don't work so well.

Maybe make a new topic called... "Why can't I remove Widgets?" ...and then explaining exactly what you've tried with things like screen shots of what you did, would help.

I think you'll find that different people, use different methods.
You need to find the method that works for you.
This is another reason why backup software is so useful.

You can try one person's method, and if it doesn't work, restore from a backup and try another method.
Restoring from a backup "erases" whatever you did, so you can try again, with a fresh slate.



With so many different versions of Windows, and so many different types of computer out there... there is NO one-size-fits-all answer.


One last piece of advice... when ever you create a topic... always post the exact version of Windows that you are running.

You can just type: winver in the Taskbar search box to find out...

Like so... the important stuff is underlined...






In my case, I just added it to my computer specs... so it's always there...



I just added the diamonds, so it comes out on three separate lines. OCD doncha know.






The reason that the Windows version is so important is because different Windows versions, behave differently.
Like, there's things on Insider versions that aren't IN regular versions.
Solving a problem depends on knowing what version you're running.

Ghot said:

It's not YOU... it's the complexity of Windows and the zillions of different computers.

This was the command I was referring to...

[System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match ‘Windows UEFI CA 2023’

For some people... copy/pasting the command left out the two single quotes around...
Windows UEFI CA 2023 ...at the end of the command.
This, ofc, made the command not work.

We're "still" not sure WHY this happened. We have some theories, but we don't "know" for sure.
The problem may be something on "their" computers, or it may be something Microsoft is doing to certain versions of Windows.

Click to expand...

To fix this, you should wrap the string Windows UEFI CA 2023 in straight quotes, not curly quotes.
It's just how the Powershell syntax factually works... no great mystery there.

hdmi said:

It's just how the Powershell syntax factually works... no great mystery there.

Click to expand...

Except it worked as is for some people, me included.


This was the topic...